The men of the glens cared little for firearms, whether musket or cannon. Their favorite weapons from of old were the dirk and the claymore. The latter was a long-handled, double-edged sword weighing from five to seven pounds, with a handle often a foot long and with one cross-bar for a hilt. This claymore, in which they gloried, was a weapon quite different from the later single-edged and basket-hilted sword, which did not come into use until well into the eighteenth century. Their one idea of fighting was to make an onset and come to close quarters. On their left arm they carried the target, or round shield, made of light, tough wood, covered with bull’s hide, stretched in one or more thicknesses and with boss or studs, and sometimes furnished with a rim of metal, or armed with a sharp point in the middle. With this defence, protecting more or less their faces and body, they rushed upon the foe, in order to be free at once to use, in older times, their claymores, or double-handed blades, or, in later days, the broadsword in close combat. When fighting with infantry armed with smooth-bore muskets and bayonets, they could, after the first volley, fired at more or less close range, dash into the files. Before the soldiers could reload, the Highlanders would be upon them, dashing aside the bayonet thrust. Then, with stabbing or cutting blow, the clansmen slaughtered their foes and thus made firearms of little account. It is true that when large levies were made, as in the earlier centuries, the Scottish spearmen were massed together and made a formidable front, though as a rule, the English archers, with their long-range missiles, were able to work havoc among the Scots, and thus prevent them from getting into close hand-to-hand action. Thus, the Southrons more than once ruined the chances and hopes of their northern foes. In archery, the Scots never were able to compete with the English.